Story Warnings: Canon Level Violence, Tony Was Never with NCIS, Mutant!Tony, Angst

Notes: This is the one I am the most unsure about continuing. I’ve never written in this fandom, and it would be a lot of just making shit up. I’m most comfortable with the original trilogy and the first Wolverine Movie. So, that’s what I’d use for my canon, which isn’t to say I’ll stick to that because Scott won’t be dying. Lucas Till also won’t be Havoc/Alex. If I continue this, I plan on putting Jared Padalecki as Havoc.

He was so tired, and all he wanted was to curl up in a ball and fade away until no one could see him to inflict more pain on him. It wasn’t that he wanted to die. That absolutely wasn’t what this was about. He just wanted other people to stop having the ability to hurt him. It seemed sometimes like his entire life had been filled with nothing but one moment of pain flowing into the next. They were only broken up by brief moments where he was lulled into a false sense of security where he could believe that just maybe it had finally end. Only it never had. The hurt always came again as someone new broke him or let him down or treated him as if he was nothing of consequence. No, he didn’t want to die.

He just wanted to be invisible so no one could see him to hurt him anymore. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a mutation that he possessed.

When he heard the knock on his door, he didn’t even bother to answer. It would only be one of three people, and answering or not wouldn’t change whether whomever was knocking entered. When the door opened, he couldn’t help but snorting as he was proved right. Damned nosy bastards.

“Professor sent me up here to check on ya,” came the distinctive drawl from the doorway. “Told him a broken heart never killed anybody. Even one that’s been broken as much as yers. Sent me up anyway. So, could ya like twitch or somethin’ so I can tell him yer not dead?” Tony couldn’t contain the chuckle and rolled to bury his face in the pillow to muffle the sound despite the fact that he knew the bastard could see his shoulders twich.

“Oh good, you are alive,” Wolverine drawled. “Guess you can come help me out in the Danger Room.”

“I have a few new programs I wanna test and I thought you might wanna help me. I might have programmed Sniper into the new scenarios. Thought you’d like to kill him a few dozen times.”

Tony rolled back over to smirk at his friend. “I thought that you promised the Professor that you’d keep me from killing the bastard?”

“Promised to keep you from killin’ the real thing,” Logan corrected as he leaned against the doorjam, “but I didn’ say nothin’ bout a digital version.”

Tony laughed out loud at the split hair. “You think he’s gonna see it that way?”

“Think that we agreed the Danger Room was my playground, and he’s gonna have to keep his nose outta it. I’d be perfectly happy to let you loose on the dumbass. Don’t know how he thinks he can just run off with some chick who can’t defend herself when he knows what’s out there. I do know that when he comes crawlin’ back I ain’t welcomin’ him with open arms, and if you take him back I’ll kick yer ass myself.”

“Not happening,” Tony said moving off the bed and moving to change into something he could wear in the Danger Room giving Logan quite an eyeful of his bare ass. “I’m done with the prick. Seriously, I just… I’m over it. I’ll be more than happy to test your new stuff and if the jerk happens to die a few dozen times, Xavier won’t find out from me. Seriously, Logan, if I so much as look at the bastard twice from here on forward you have my permission to kick my ass. I’m done with people who are gonna treat me like I’m disposable.”

“It’ll be my pleasure,” Logan promised as he followed the younger man out hoping his friend really meant what he said. Even more than that, he hoped the X-Men had seen the last of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs aka Sniper.

Later that same day found him out back in one of his partially shifted forms. His code name was Gatto, which was Italian for cat, because his primary mutation allowed him to shift into the form of anything from a common house cat to the king of the jungle and everything in between. He also had a range of how much he shifted. He could leave it as little as simply his eyes or hearing if he wanted to simply enhance his eyesight or hearing, he could fully shift so that he appeared no different from a normal cat, or he could pick something in between depending on the situation and how he needed to be used. Currently, he was partially shifted into a Snow Leopard form to shield himself from the coldness that came from January in New York.

Logan had left him to his brooding this time confident that he’d done enough to keep his friend from falling too far into his moping and was most likely inside harassing Scott. Remy was still out on a mission for Summers and the Professor and it would probably be at least another week before anyone saw him again. He wished now that he’d taken the Cajun up on his offer to let him come along. It would have been better than having nothing to do but sit around and think.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than his phone rang. Huffing aggravated, Tony willed one of his fingers to switch back to human form so that he could swipe to answer the call. “Yeah?” He answered not bothering to look to see who it was.”

“Tonio, please, don’t hang up.”

Frowning, Tony glared at the snow covering the backyard as if it were suddenly offending him. “What the fuck do you want? I thought we agreed that you’d leave me alone.”

“I know, but… Tony, I’m in trouble, and I don’t know where else to turn. Please, I need you.”

Growling, he flopped back to lay flat on his back and glare at the sky. “Fuck my life, if it isn’t one bastard it’s another.”

“I owe you. I promise you won’t regret this.”

“Of course I will,” Tony snarled back, “I always do with you.”

“I can’t imagine how this time will be any different.” Standing he shook off the snow as he stomped back into the mansion not bothering to change. He hoped that Scott was still in Xavier’s office. Maybe if he was lucky the Professor would summon Logan too. He’d feel much better about this chat if he had his friend and big brother to back him up. This wasn’t going to be an easy sell.

“Tell me what’s going on, and if you lie to me I’ll end you for good.”

“You have my word.”

Tony huffed as students scurried out of his way as he stomped through the halls. “That’s not worth much,” he growled and then didn’t speak again until the nightmare was laid out in front of him. Sometimes he wished he had a less developed sense of justice. He might hate the asshole, but there was no way he could leave things the way they were. Maybe if he was really lucky, he could keep himself from falling for the jackass again. Yeah, right.

EndNote: All stories are also posted on AO3. Should anything posted for EAD be completed, the EAD preview will be deleted without warning.